1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a mooring device and more particularly to the boat mooring device for securing a boat to an object.
2. Background of the Invention
Docking a vessel, and more particularly a small boat, has presented several unanswered challenges to the boater. The effects of docks or piers, tides, wind, waves, current and adjacent vessels create an extreme environment for the vessel operator to ensure the safety of the boarding or disembarking of passengers as well as the safety from damage of the vessel itself. The vessel must be maintained adjacent to, yet not in contact with the dock and/or adjacently moored vessels. Several attempts in the prior art have been made to provide a solution to the needs of the small boat operator.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,108,563 to Wurdack discloses improvements in boat mooring attachments, and, in particular, with a boat mooring attachment whereby a ‘boat may be moored by a rigid boom to pilings or floating dock to prevent the boat from knocking against the pilings or dock.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,177,838 to Grimes discloses a marine mooring device and in more particularity to a mooring device for small boats. It is a primary object of the invention to provide a mooring device for fastening a boat to a stationary structure which will maintain a spaced relationship between the boat and said stationary structure at all times.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,406,651 to Jalbert discloses a boat mooring means including a novel check means which consists of at least two hollow tubes, one of which tubes is of less diameter than the other so as to snugly telescopically fit within 15 the other hollow tube, and there is means for permitting attachment of one of the tubes relative to the other to lengthen or shorten the check means as desired. The check means further includes, at the end of one of the tubes, a hook with associated closure for opening therein, 20 which associated closure acts automatically to close the opening in the hook when the same is attached to an eye bolt or the like that is fastened to the pilings of a wharf, dock or the like, or such eye bolt may be, of course, fastened to the wharf or dock proper. At the end of the other tube, there is an outwardly extending curved hook structure which is adapted to be hooked between two spaced apart knots in a line. There is a conventional cleat or what is known as a deck cleat adjacent the bow of the boat, and another such cleat adjacent the stem of the boat. One end of the said line is firmly attached to the cleat at both the front and back of the boat, and the other end of each line is attached in any suitable way, such as by securing about the piling as shown. The check means has its hooked end substantially midway between two knots in the line placed 1 to 3 feet from the boat, and, as aforesaid, its other end is attached by means of an eye bolt or the like to a piling or to the wharf or dock proper. The boat with the said lines and the check means thus positioned and secured will positively be prevented from engaging the pilings or the wharf, dock or the like during any kind of weather, rough seas, storms, waves of passing ships or boats, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,861,731 to Young discloses a boat handler having a hook element which can be turned to close a hook portion on an anvil piece so that it captures a boat. The handle may be tubular and extendable or solid as with wood and the hook, anvil, sleeve and stop block may be formed from resin materials having excellent stability and resistance to corrosion and deterioration under adverse weather conditions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,686,926 to Vance discloses a pair of identical rigid arms each pivotably attached at one end to a pair of identical brackets, one bracket attached to a boat and the other bracket attached to a dock. An elongated helically wound spring is threaded on to each end of the arms to connect them together. The arms are held in place at the bracket by pins or rods which, particularly at the boat bracket, can be quickly and easily removed to free the boat.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,083 to Billings discloses a hand-manipulated device for mooring boats to docks. Both of the same being provided with cleats, and the device comprising essentially an elongate spacer member having opposite end fittings each provided with an outer edge. These edges are recessed to provide a con-cave, cleat-receiving seat for proper positionment of the device. The device itself includes suitable apertures for receiving an elongate flexible member such as a cord that is loosely looped at the opposite ends of the device to loop over and engage the cleats. The cord is then pulled tight such that the loops tightly surround the cleat risers or posts,—and the cord is itself fastened to a cleat provided the device so that the cord is maintained in top condition. The device thus not only secures the boat to a dock, by the cleats of the same, but also, by virtue of the nature of the elongate spacer member, the boat is held in a spaced condition relative to the dock so that the boat sides will not be marred through jarring against the dock or its supporting pillars. The elongate spacer member is preferably of telescoping nature so that the length thereof-can be adjusted.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,892 to Sechel et al. discloses a marine standoff that maintains a watercraft at a fixed distance from a dock or wharf. The marine standoff may be used as a portable unit and stored on board the watercraft or may be used as a fixed unit and left permanently attached to a fixed mooring point. A preferred embodiment includes an attaching hook/clip combination on one end of the marine standoff and an elastomer tip at the other end of the marine standoff through which a line is passed through at the elastomer tip end. A stainless steel cable is attached to the safety clip portion of the hook, said cable being housed within the interior chamber of the marine standoff. The cable end which is remote from the hook is connected to an exterior pull ring which allows the remote release of the safety clip for easy removal of the standoff from a docking device such as a cleat or ring.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,551 to Matson discloses a device for mooring small boats including a rigid tubular sleeve with outwardly flared ends. A stretch cord located in the sleeve has attaching members in the form of hooks or the like at each end which extend at least partially outside the associated sleeve end. To moor a boat, one hook is pulled outwardly, stretching the cord, and fastened to a boat rail or cleat. The other hook is similarly fastened to a ring or eye-bolt on the dock. The stretch cord urges the hooks toward the sleeve so that the hooks and flared sleeve ends cooperate to form grips; and the sleeve acts as a spacer to space the boat from the dock.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,591 to Chippas discloses a mooring device for boats comprising an elongate arm having first and second ends. The arm has a transverse slot therein adjacent the first end, and dimensioned to received a cleat. The slot is in effect a fixed hook which opens to the side of the arm. A rotatable is mounted to the second end of the arm for rotation about an axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the arm. The hook is rotatable between a closed position in which its free leg opposes the second end of the arm and an open position in which its free leg is spaced from the second end. In the closed position, the hook lies in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the slot. The hook is dimensioned to engage a cleat. A locking mechanism such as a sliding bolt is provided for locking a cleat in the slot. The arm can be telescopic, or provided with hinges which are pivotable in opposite directions, so that it can be adjusted for boarding and deboarding. Alternatively, the mooring device can further include rotatable cleats, which enable the arm to be oriented perpendicular to the boat side for docking and to be oriented at a severely acute Angel to the boat side for boarding and deboarding.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,421 to Velarde discloses a watercraft mooring apparatus. The apparatus includes an elongate spacing device having a generally tubular element with an interior channel formed there-through. There are a pair of resilient fender components attached to respective ends of the tubular element. Each fender component has an opening that communicates with the interior channel. A flexible line extends through and outside of the spacing device. The line has a first end portion that releasably engages a first vessel and a second end portion that releasably engages either a dock or a second vessel.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,431,104 to Webb discloses a shock absorbing docking spacer to space a tethered boat from dockside. It comprises an elongated body having two cylindrical sections moveable longitudinally of each other to define spacer length with one of said cylindrical sections being connectable to a boat and the other of said cylindrical sections being connectable to a dock. A resilient cord is connected at one of its ends to one of said cylindrical sections and at the other of its ends to the other of said cylindrical sections to be tensioned as the cylindrical sections move longitudinally of each other due to shock forces in use to reduce spacer length. The cord cord has a resilience as aforesaid to absorb shock forces on the boat that reduce the spacer length in use, and to reassert itself and restore spacer length when shock forces are removed.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,113 to Leise discloses a portable mooring device adaptable for attachment to existing devices, such as cleat or rail, or directly to a boat or other water craft. A flat plate is attached directly to the water craft or to an existing cleat or rail, and then an attachment device is attached to the plate. The attachment device may be a mounting plate that receives a rod secured thereto by a pin or other fastening device. The rod may be of a desired length to secure the water craft to a dock with a rope or other securing device. The rod is secured in the mounting plate so that it will not move laterally to the dock, therefore keeping the watercraft at a desired distance from the dock and preventing the water craft from hitting and rubbing against the dock, or other water craft. The rod may have a pivot point on the end attached to the mounting plate so the boat can move up and down with the movement of the water.
Although some of the devices of the prior art have addressed these problems none has successfully solved the overall issue. Therefore it is an object of this invention to provide a mooring device which maintains the vessel at a safe distance from a pier or dock in varying conditions of wind, current, tide and waves.
Another object of this invention is to provide a mooring device which will maintain a safe distance between adjacent vessels in a variety of wind and sea conditions, either when at a dock or when rafted together at anchor.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the present invention. These objects should be construed as being merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the invention. Many other beneficial results can be obtained by modifying the invention within the scope of the invention. Accordingly other objects in a full understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention, the detailed description describing the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.